Abortion
The Center for Reproductive Rights works to protect and advance abortion rights around the world by removing restrictive laws and policies, promoting measures to improve access to safe and legal abortion, and countering efforts to undermine access to abortion care.
Explore the Center’s World Abortion Laws Map in English.
Explore el mapa de leyes mundiales sobre el aborto del Centro en español.
Summary
Human rights bodies and courts worldwide recognize that abortion care is essential health care and a critical aspect of women and girls’ fundamental human rights. Everyone has the right to accessible, high-quality abortion care and no one should be criminalized for seeking or accessing abortion services. In recent decades, more than 60 countries have liberalized their abortion laws, recognizing the importance of reproductive autonomy in women’s lives.
Yet throughout the world, legal, policy and other barriers continue to undermine access to abortion care. Restrictive abortion laws and other barriers increase rates of unsafe abortion and delay access to essential and time-sensitive care. By disproportionately harming low-income and marginalized communities, these laws and policies exacerbate social inequality.
To protect and expand abortion rights and access, the Center seeks to overturn restrictive abortion laws, repeal procedural barriers, defend women imprisoned under restrictive abortion laws, and advocate against rollbacks of abortion rights and for measures to enhance access to abortion care. The Center has fought and won groundbreaking abortion cases before national courts including the U.S. Supreme Court, United Nations committees, and regional human rights courts and bodies.
Since 2021, as a result of the Center’s work, 1.7 billion people have stronger legal protections for abortion.
–Our Impact
Key Facts
39,000
Deaths occur each year from unsafe abortions.
60
Countries have liberalized their abortion laws over the past 25 years.
40%
Of women of reproductive age still live in countries with restrictive abortion laws.
Work and Cases
Explore highlights of the Center’s work to improve abortion rights and access.
Like other health services, abortion should be regulated based on health, well-being and human rights—not under criminal laws.
Center cases on behalf of U.S. women who were denied abortion care despite severe and dangerous pregnancy complications.
Get answers to frequently asked questions about medication abortion, which has transformed global abortion access.
Publications and Resources
Abortion Decriminalization
Like other health services, abortion should be regulated based on health, well-being and human rights—not regulated under criminal laws. Read more.
WHO’s New Abortion Care Guideline Affirms Abortion as a Human Right
Guideline affirms abortion access as essential to health and human rights, calling for the removal of legal barriers to access. Read more.
European Abortion Laws: A Comparative Overview
This fact sheet provides an overview of abortion laws and policies in all 47 European countries and a range of visual tools for analyzing European abortion laws. Read more.
After Roe Fell: U.S. Abortion Laws by State
More than a dozen U.S. states have banned abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right. Find out where abortion is illegal and where it’s protected with this valuable tool. Explore the map.
In Brief: Unveiling the Realities of Laws on Abortion in the Philippines
This brief outlines the impact of the Philippines’ abortion laws and advocates for the decriminalization of abortion in the country. Read more.
Maputo Protocol at 20: Progress on Abortion Rights in Africa
This Center report details the level of compliance for each of the 55 African states. Read more.
Case at United Nations Human Rights Committee Seeks to Ensure Access to Abortion in Honduras
After becoming pregnant as a result of rape, an indigenous woman and human rights defender was denied emergency contraception and abortion care and was forced to give birth against her will. Learn more.
Improving Access to Abortion in Crisis Settings
This tool is designed to help program planners and organizations understand abortion law and manage legal risk when providing or supporting access to abortion for people who are displaced by crisis. Read more.
